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A SMALL TRACT 

ENTITLED A 

CANDID AND IMPARTIAL EXPOSITION 

OF THE 

Various Opinions on the subject of the Com- 
parative quality of the 



IN THE 

NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN SECTIONS 

OF THE 

VJ^ITED STATES, 

WITH A VIEW TO DEVELOPE THE TRUE CAUSE 
OF THE DIFFERENCE. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED 

Instructions showing how to improve the character of the 
Northern Flour to an equality with that of the South; 
and preserve the latter from that depreciation which, in some 
places, it is of late so evidently underling ; 

IX A LETTER FHOM 

JOHN C.*BRUSH, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 

TO 

S.U1VEL LATKiM^nTCHILL, L. L. D. OF J^EW-YORK. 



" There is no need to fetch from Mythology and uncertaih Histories, the 
'' origin of a thing which may- iTe found in nature ; and the most learned writers 
' T\ ho have looked for it out of nftture have not been satisffed with tlieir inquuies. " 



WASHINGTON CITY: 
PRINTED BY JACOB GIDEON^ JUNIOR. 

18S0. 



DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, to wit 

«*#«♦♦* JBE IT REMEMBERED, I'lmt on tlic Irtenty-fotirtb daj- oi' 

f I.. 6. ^ November, id the forty -fifUi } ear of the Iiuleiieiuk'iice of the United 
*»*♦♦**» States of America, A. D. i820, John C. Bmsii, of the s:tid District, 

halli deposited in this office the title of a Book, the light whereof he (.hiiius as 

aulhor and proin-ietor, iu the words follo>ving, to m it : 

" A Small Tract entitled a Candiil and Impartial Exposition of the 
" vai'ious opinions on the subject of the conipai'ative quKlity of the Wheat 
" and Flour in tlie Moitli/ern and Southeni Section* of the iJuited 
" States, vvith a view to develope the true cause of the difleix'nte ; to 
«' which are added, Instructions shovinjj how to improve tlife character 
" of the Northern Flour to an equality with that of the South ; and pt^- 
*' sei-ve the latter li-oni that depreciation which iu some places it is of late 
" so evidentl) undergoinj;- ; in a Letter from JoJm C Bmsh, of Washing- 
" ton, District (^Columbia, to SAmud Latham Milthiil, L. L. D. of New 
" York." -■ 

" There is iio feeed to fetch from Mytholog v and uncertain histories, 
" the ovig,iu of a thing which may be found in nature ; and the most 
•' learned writei'S who have l(K)ked for it out of nature have not bee it 
" satisfied witli tliel^ iu<iuii-ies."' 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled "An 
act for the encouragement of learning, by secuiiug the copies of maps, charts, 
avid books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times theroin 
mentioned j" and also to the act, entitled " An act supplenventaiy to :.ii act, en- 
titled ' An act for the encoxu-agenient ui' learning, by securing the copies of maos, 
charts, and books, to the autian-s and proprietors of such copies during thelinic^ 
tliereiu mentioned,' and extciidiug ftUe benefits theivof to the arts of designing-, 
1 iigraving, and etching historical and oUier prints." 

In testimonif -whe'vof] I lii'.ve hereunto set niv h;'.iid, and afli.ved my senl 
, , . of oHicc. 'liv day and year above wriiic!'.. 

C^'^feV \\ EDM. I. LEE, 

'•-' ^""^ ,„-^ Qw f't-vk v'l "r • V ■ ; ,„ui u) ihc Diblrid (tf Cohmibia, 



^6t>^ 



TheftSomin^ alterations have been made by the Author since these page* ivere 
printed : two or three, however, are errors of the Printer. 

P»^ Q, drcumstances for " clrcamstance." Pasje 0, tires for "ties." In 
the same pa^e, a comma after the word " pass." Pacje 10, phf for " fly." In the 
•jame page acenefov" scenes." In the same page,f/i(? fortho',and due for " dew." 
in the same page, a capital for a small letter to the name of " Youag." Page 11, 
the word it to be insetted between the words " that and is." Page 13, ohvious'if for 
<' obvious." Page 14, the word /"row to be inserted before he words " the kindly 
snovrs." Page 15, feos^ for « last." Page 20, care/ij/ for " useful." Page 32', 
the word tfteii to be erased. In the same page, former for " farmer." Page 33, 
cut for " but." In the same page, beasts for *' beast." Page 34, a comma for a 
period afterthe word " maturity!" Pa^^e 42, the words was manufactured to bt 
ms(?rtei) after the vords ''• now spoken of." Page 44. chimneyt for " chimney." 



AliTillE^S. 



Respected and much beloved 

fellow -citizens of mij native state, 

A^S you had the services of my eurhj, so now I. 
tender you those of my latter yeaxs. And as, from 
the very low and exhausted state of my body ami 
mind, produced principally by the circumstance of 
extreme suffering under which I prepared tliis work, 
as you will find stated in my letter to my friend, Dr. 
Mitchill, I have too much reason to conclude, it will 
be among the last of my labors in the cause of Uie 
public, I am the more anxious to get it before them 
as soon as possible, in the best manner I can in my 
present situation. 

As to the importance of the subject of this little 
humble essay, particularly to the great interests of 
our native state, you all must be too well satisfied. 
It cannot be better set forth, than it is in the late very 
learned and able Memoir of Benjamin U. Coles, 
Esquire ; a highly respectable member of one of your 
principal Agricultural Societies, on the same long 
agitated question. He states, in the following lan- 
guage, that, ^* Calculations might easily ])e made to 



4 

" show, that if our wheat should improve so as to be 
^* equal in quality to Virginia wheat, or worth two 
" shillings per bushel more than it now is, our state 
^' would receive an increase of income of at least five 
" hundred thousand dollars per annum, besides 
'^ bringing back to the city of New York, the wheat 
'^ and flour from the Southern states, and the pur- 
" chasers and sellers, with their concomitant advan- 
'' tages, which she has lost or driven away, by the 
'' miserable short-sighted policy, pursued for a num- 
** ber of years past." 

Again, he says, *^ Wheat is the most nutritious, 
^^ the most salubrious, the cheapest, and most eco- 
^^ nomical of all the food consumed by man, whether 
^* animal or vegetable ; and the more delicate it is, 
"the more is its use economical and wholesome." 

To show still further the great importance of which 
this subject is considered, I will add a brief obser- 
vation from an address delivered by the honorable 
William Tilghman, L. L. D. Chief Justice of Penn- 
sylvania, to the Agricultural Society of Philadelphia, 
in January last. He says — *^ Perhaps some fortu- 
"nate o!)server may let us into the nature of that 
" scourge of agriculture, known by the name of the 
*^ Hessian fly, so that we may get rid of it, as we did 
*^ of the Weavel fly, some forty years ago. Such a 
" man would deserve a statue of gold, and I think 
^' the farmers would gladly erect it." 

Respecting the merits of this performance, I can 
only say, that whatever may be thought by the criti- 
cat SLTid fastidious reader of the style and manner of 
it, 1 am conscious of its being honest and faithful ; 



and am perfectly satisfied in believing that it discloses 
the only real cause of what has been so long, and so 
universally a source of mortification and complaint 
among the inhabitants of the North ; namely, the 
inferiority of your flour, when compared with that 
of the South. Otherwise, be assured, I should never 
have thought of risking my reputation, humble as it 
is, in appearing before the world on a subject which 
has not ceased, for so many years, to excite the most 
lively interest, and to engage the attention of the 
ablest,* the most laborious invesi-igators. 

Nor should I, even now, merely on the strength of 
my own private opinion, confident as 1 am of its 
soundness, have ventured a publication of it, had I 
not for my sup^^ort of this opinion the strong corrobo- 
ration of that of men, on whose correct judgment and 
acknowledged candor, the world will always rely. 

I have, therefore, wishing to afford the public 
mind the fullest 'satisfaction, given, as you will see 
subjoined to this address, Uie high sanction to my 
attempt of two characters of the first respectability in 
your state, or of the present age, not only for their 
extensive acquaintance with the various arts, sciences, 
and improvements ; but more particularly for their 
practical observations, and long and strict attention 
to rural pursuits and domestic economy. 

Many others, farmers, millers, jloiir-mercJmntSy 
and literary gentlemen, of high reputation, to whom 
it has been submitted, have given it their decided 
approbation. 

As it is, then, this performance is dedicated to the 
virtuous, intelligent, industrious, and enterprizing 



yeomanry of the state of New Yolk, with all those 
fond recollections — all those pure and ardent senti- 
ments of pride, love, and devotion for his fellow 
citizens of his native soil, which inspired the breast 
of the author from his earliest days, and which no 
change of time, place, nor circumstances will ever have 
the power to vary — No ; 

Though more than twenty years twice told had pass'd 
Bre he his native spot to see was bless'd : 
Though /ar and long from it compelPd to roam. 
He owns, he knows on earth like it no home. 

JOHN C. BRUSH. 

* 

Washington, J^ovembery 1820. 



«^k 



New York, %'^th Jj)ril, 1820. 

John C. Brush, Esquire. 
DEAR SIR, 

la the memoir you read to me a few days ago, on 
the suhject of wheat, and of the flour manufactured 
from it, I thought that you had contemplated the grain 
of that species, as produced on the lands watered by 
the Hudson, and those bordering on the Potomac, in 
an interesting manner, and different from any thing I 
had heard before. 

As your observations were practical, and calculated 
to improve the quality of a great article of domestic 
produce, I was serious in my request that a perfor- 
mance which seemed so excellent, should be publish- 
ed in Mr. Southwick's widely circulating journal of 
husbandry and rural affairs, the Plough JBoij. 1 
presumed that such a disquisition printed at Albany, 
the centre of the wheat country, would be generally 
read l>y the farmers, for whose information it was 
written. 

Your experience as a cultivator, at one time of your 
life, near the Mohawk, and at another, in the vicinity 
of Duck Greek, (now Smyrna) has enabled you (o 
know the management of wheat both in New York 
and in Delaware : and if you can induce the vmii\ 
economists of the North to imitate the method of 
reaping and harvesting adopted in the South, I am 
satisfied the grain raised and prepared by the former 
will be in all respects as good as that produced by 
the latter. 



Let me request you to revise your manuscript, and 
prepare'it for the public eye as soon as yoii can. It 
will form a very useful sequel to the pamphlet of 
Benjaraiu U. Coles, Esq. : and more, it will be in 
season for full consideration before the present crop 
shall be ready for the sickle. 

Truly yours, 

SAMUEL L. MITCHILL. 

Having perused the essay referred to in the above, 
I coincide fully in the opinion expressed by Dr. 
Mitchill, as to its general merits. 1 think the author 
deserves great credit for his originality and ability — 
and have no hesitation in saying, that, in my opinion, 
if the suggestions of Mr. Brush should be put in 
practice, they would tend greatly to improve the 
quality and raise the character of our Northern wheat. 
THEODORUS BAILEY. 

Neav York, Jpril 2dthj 1820. 

Albany, September iith, 1830. 

'dear sir, 

Will you do me the favor to furnish for the Plough 
Boi/f a copy of your essay on wheat ? Dr. Mitchill 
has spoken to me very highly of it ; and 1 am very 
anxious to present it to my readers. 

With high respect, sir, yours, 

S. SOUTHWICK. 

John C. Brush} Esquire, 






11AUYE«)T SCENTl 0¥ THE ^0\]TH. 

Ask ye when harvest comes ? go nature ask, 
Your mighty doubts to solve, be her's the task. 
'Tis her's alone of times the signs to give, 
When we her choicer bounties may receive, (^aj 
Her course uvchanged pursue, she'll tell you when: 
Break, then the trammels of inthraling men. 
For what, I ask, would prejudice not do, 
'Twould da«ijn our souls, estates and bodies too. 
To nature, then, once more I say, her plan 
Should ever be the guide of erring man. 
Impatient for relief, midst her last throes, 
By indications strong she ever shows 
A lingering, tedious death she disavows. 
In man, in beast, in plant, alike confess'd. 
When life once ties, in death alone she's bless'd. 
Her strong desires, hence tend, and then ye'U prove 
The fix'd, the eternal pleasures qf her love. 
But, once her times, her seasons pass no more, 
Ye hail again the promised, favour'd hour. 
No more her joys she yields; — she's none to give. 
Can she, I ask, the '^death of deaths^' survive? 
Her calls, then, hear, nor heedless of her moan, 
Let all unite her last fond wish to crown. 
What time the head inclined, not falVn^ ye see, 
All other cares dismissed from all sef free ; 
With man, with woman, child, the field then take, 
Nor want of gen'rous cheer through avarice lack: 
The sacred rights of Ceres first performed. 
And every breast by Heav'n all bounteous warmM. 



10 



With gentle stroke the yiekliiig grain then fly. 
Ah! leave it not '^a. thousand deaths to die." 
The hour thus given then seize the scenes to close, 
Nor nature cause her choicer powers to lose. 
Do we, when sunk in years, for death intreat ? 
So do ouv fruits, pmss, jmhej our corn, our wheat. 
For nature, to her works for ever true 
From all demands tho' tribute to her dew. 
Her laws, her works throughout all parts pervade, 
Nor less for insect, plant, than man were made : 
'Tis one Great Soul the universe inspires ! 
From that spring,all those native, lasting lires. 
Which warm and animate the greatest, least 
Of all the works that God has made and blest : 
And, when no longer here they live and burn. 
To their Great Parent all again return. 
No more diversified, estranged and spread. 
To live and love, in one eternal iiead. 
Pythagoras thus.taught — so young believed, 
The thought howjgreat, divine, how well conceived /{h) 
. \ 

V 

New- York, Afril iQth^ IS20. 

Samuel L. Mitchill, Esq. L. L. 1). 
DEAR SIR, 

In the above rllde and hasty lines will be found the 
substance of theYoUowing communication. There is 
nothing in it of art and speculation. It is purely 
the work of nature ; plain, simple, and unadorned; 
and permit me to say, springs iutirely from an act of 
your own good will. For, I declare with a sincerity 



11 

in which it is impossible for me to mistake, that is 
induced solely by the very kind and respectful man- 
ner in which you were pleased to receive, and honor 
the few brief remarks I took the freedom incidentally 
to make to you, on what I supposed to be the cause 
of the inferiority of Northern flour in the United 
States, in one of our usual, free and extended con- 
versations, with which I was lately favored with 
Mrs. Mitchill and yourself at your friendly, hospi- 
table fireside. 

This opportunity, so politely afforded, is the more 
grateful, as it at once favors a more full and unre- 
served expression of the opinions I then suggested, 
than probably I otherwise should ever have made. 
For, who, I would ask, as tired of preaching, as I 
by this time may well be supposed to be, would so 
easily consent to croak out his few remaining days 
to those, who either cannot^ or will not hear, read or 
understand ? 

It is, then, no slight relief to my mind, so long 
fatigued and vexed in this way, to be assured, as I 
am, that I now communicate with one, who, while he 
has patience to hear, and intelligence to discern and 
judge, possesses at the same time candor to spare, 
and friendship and patriotism to cherish the feeblest, 
humblest effort in aid of the great cause of commu- 
nity, to the best and highest interests of which he 
himself Avith all his talents and zeal, has been so 
long, and so usefully devoted. 

Impressed then, as I am, and as you declared 
yourself to be on that occasion with the high impor- 
tance of the subject to the public generally, and 



IS 

more particularly to our fellow citizens of this our 
native state, I beg leave respectfully to state for your 
further consideration, and more at large than the 
limits of an evening's conversation, interspersed with 
other topics, would allow, the facts, observations and 
reasonings on which the opinions 1 then advanced to 
you have long since been fully and decidedly founded. 
In treating this question, observing very much tha 
order pursued in our late conversation, I shall : 

I. Briefly animadvert on the several causes alledged 
for the inferiority of the Northern flour in the United 
States, and endeavor to show their utter incompe- 
tency to produce the efEect required, to be accounted 
for : and that it is of no small importance to arrest 
the progress of all those loose, vague and unfounded 
notions on this subject, which, instead of enlighten- 
ing and satisfying the inquiring mind, can only serve 
to bewilder, confound and distract it in a vain pursuit 
and thereby unfit it for an understanding and ac- 
knowledgment of the true cause, 

II. I shall respectfully submit what I have long 
conceived to be the only true and satisfactory cause, 
of the inferiority of Northern flour : namely, the 
damaged state of the wheat, sustained in conse- 
quence of suffering it to remain too long on the 
ground before it is cut, after it has arrived to a full and 
perfect state of maturity — that is, until, according to 
the strange language of the North, it is "dead ripe," 
which, to be sure, can mean nothing less than that it 
is ripe even unto death, 

III. Give those sure and infallible indications of 
nature, by which she points out that precise stage of 



13 

full and perfect matupty in the wheat crop, when, as 
she does in others, according to her fixed and uni- 
versal laws which govern all annual vegetables, it is 
not only safe to cnt it, but when it ought to be har- 
vested, and taken from its parent earth, in order to 
preserve it from that waste of its richer, finer, 
more sprightly, generous and nutritious substances 
which must be the inevitable consequence of its stand- 
ing on the ground through a long and tedious decay 
after the Reason of entire ripeness. 

IV. Innuraerate the many advantages obvious, 
arising from the practice here recommended of har- 
vesting the wheat crop in due time, independently of 
the superior quality of the flour, here principally 
urged. 

I. The causes alleged for the inferiority of Northern 
flour, so far as they have come to my knowledge, are 
the following, viz : 

1. An absolute inferiority in the intrinsic quality of 
the Northern wheat. 

2. The greater quantity of filth it contains. 

3. The less perfect manner of manufacturing at the 
North, from defects in the machinery, and apparatus 
of the mills in that quarter, and a want of sufficient 
knowledge and experience of the business in the 
owners and millers. 

These causes, in their turn, have been assigned with 
much confidence, as sufficient to account for the evil 
in question. But, with what satisfaction to the 
public mind, I shall now proceed to show. 

In the first place, then, that the wheat of the state of 
New- York, under the same mode of management. 



14 

is not Inferior to that of Virginia, is well known to 
all coQipetent judges, who have for many years made 
a full and fair comparison. And why I would ask, 
should it be ? Both at the North and the South, it is of 
the same kinds. Even the early Virginia white wheat 
which is unquestionably the best in the world, in res- 
pect to its finer qualities, and many other advantages, 
may be produced in the state of New-York, and even 
in Canada, as w ell as in Virginia. The wheat both at 
the North and the South is raised on the same variety 
of soils. And, as to the climate of New- York and 
Virginia, the difference is not so great as to be a con- 
sideration. And what little there is in this respect 
is evidently in favor of the wheat crop in New- York, 
both in winter and summer, both seasons being more 
uniform there, than at the South. The kindly snows 
in winter which shield the crop from destructive 
frosts ; and the more intense heat at the season of its 
ripening, on account of the greater length of the days 
at the North, it comes to maturity more rapidly, and 
is far less liable to mildew, rust, scab and smut, 
which so much affect it at the South, from the great- 
er descent of vapor during their longer, and of 
course, more chilly nights. 

After all ; perhaps no two portions of the glohe, of 
equal extent with the states of New-York and Vir- 
ginia, could be named which are more alike, as to 
the fitness of their respective soils, for the production 
of the wheat crop. Both contain, in about an equal 
quantity and distribution, all the variety of soil from 
the richer, the more kindly mould down to the stub- 
born clay, sand and gravel, (c) 



15 

It cannot be otherwise from the almost perfect simi- 
larity in their natural situations as to mountains, 
rivers, and their Atlantic borders. Hence we find 
in both, nearly the same diversity of surface as to 
mountainous, hilly and champaign, or flat country. 
The only very marked difference is in the interior of 
those two great rival, sister states, J\*etc-York being 
bounded back in part by the great lakes ; while Virgi- 
nia has not a single lake in it, or on its boundaries. 

In the second place ; that the wheat of the North 
contains a greater quantity of filth, than that of the 
South is not less inadmissible. It must be equally 
infested with it in both quarters, according to the 
care, or negligence, and inattention of the cultivator 
and manufacturer. And certainly it would be no 
compliment to the JSTurthern farmers and millers to 
say, that at last, they are not more careless and slo- 
venly than the Southern. 

In the third place ; not less improbable is it, that 
the cause of the inferiority of Northern flour is to be 
found in the less perfect manner of manufacturing it, 
fronj defects in the machinery and apparatus of the 
mills; and a want of suificient knowledge and expe- 
rience in the owners and millers, or those who super- 
intend them. For certainly the mills oftiie Nortli, 
in their construction and various appurtenances, are 
by no means inferior to those of the South ; but in all 
respects better. xVnd, as to the owners, they may 
claim, I think, without any violation of modesty, 
equal intelligence with their professional brethren of 
the South, or any part of the world. Nor can the 
cause, with the least color of propriety, be attributed 



16 

to the millers, as many of them have served in tlieh* 
line of business at the South as well as the JS'^orth ; 
and by this interchange must be supposed to have 
communicated mutually the skill or knowledge tliey 
have attained both in the North and the South. 

I have been the more particular in my exposition 
of these supposed causes, from the importance of 
divorcing from error j before we can wed mankind to 
the truth. 

From all these facts, then it must be naturally, and 
even necessarily inferred, that if there be any mate- 
rial difference in the quality of the Southern and 
Northern flour, as tiiere confessedly is, some other 
cause besides those which have now been considered 
must be sought out before wc can satisfactorily ac- 
count for tlie inferiority of Northern flour. 

What tliat cause is I shall now aUerapt to sliow. 

Since writing the foregoing, I have had the 
pleasure, for the first time, of perusing a small tract 
on this su])ject, written by Benjamin U. Coles, Estj. 
In this work I find that I am sustained in ray opi- 
nion as to the insufficiency of the three causes I 
have already considered. The writer does not make 
the inferiority of Northern flour to consist in either 
of them ; and denies that it can be in the quality of 
the wheat; and maintains, with myselt^, that it is not 
inferior to that of the South. But, he assigns a 
cause entirely new ; namely, a defect in the inspec- 
tion laws. He urges, and with no small degree of 
plausibility, that, while the inspectors' fees are to 
accrue from the quality instead of the quantity, the 
(iesire of increasing the profits of their business, will 



17 

too often present the inducement to pass off under 
their brandy or stamps a great quantity of flour of an 
inferior quality for supprjine. And, that it is by 
this abuse of the oflRce of inspector, the Northern 
flour has lost its character, and been reduced to its 
present state of degradation; and warmly advocates 
an amendment of the law which shall fix the inspec- 
tion on the quantity and not the quality. This 
reform, for any thing I know, may be loudly called 
for among the inspectors of New York. But, I 
must candidly confess, that 1 fiud insuperable difficul- 
ties in admitting this to be the real cause of the inferi- 
ority of Northern flour, notwithstanding the very able 
manner in which it is supported by the learned 
author of the " Memoir on the subject of the wheat 
" and flour of the state of New York." My reasons 
I will briefly and candidly give. The admission of 
this cause would be such a plain and direct impeach- 
ment of the common honesty of the citizens of my 
native state, that it would by no means accord with 
my long and fixed opinion of them, that they are 
about as upright, class for class, as those of Virginia, 
Besides, how can the belief of this cause be recon- 
ciled to the acknowleged principles of philosophy 
and nature, " That like causes, all circumstances 
'^ being equal, produce like efi'ects." " That the 
** effect cannot extend beyond the operation of the 
"cause." And, " that the effect cannot precede the 
*' cause." Now, I think we may ask, without any 
violation of courtesy, as the same inspection laws 
obtain in Virginia, as in New York, how can we 

account for the superiority of the flour of the former 

3 



18 

over that of the latter, on the cause assigned by the 
writer of the Memoir. To relieve himself from this 
dilemma with which he finds himself so obviously 
pressed, he stated, that the same abuse of the inspec- 
tion laws is beginning to prevail at the South, and 
that it only requires time to render the effect as uni- 
versal there as at the North. All this, we admit, is 
very possible. The flour of Virginia may in time, 
be brought down to the low standard of New York, 
by the inspectors there, who, to increase their emo- 
luinents, may pass off all as superjlnef and thereby 
leave no inducement to the manufacturer to prepare 
any of the first quality for market. But certainly, it 
does not follow from all this, that because by the 
abuse of the inspectors, good Virginia flour may, 
some centuries to come, become bad^ that had New 
York flour can, in the same time, be m?L(\egood. In 
other words, can tlie real, intrinsic quality of the 
article, good or bad, be changed by an inspector? 
To come still more to tlie point, was tiie flour of 
New York, independently of the inspection laws, 
and even before they ever existed, known to be, for 
some twenty-five or thirty years past, of as good a 
quality as that of Virginia ? or is any flour of New 
York, at this present time, Avhich has not undergone 
inspection, equal to that from Virginia which has not 
undergone inspection ? For a great quantity in both 
states is used which has never been inspected. All 
these things are required to be made to appear, before 
the cause assigned by the author of the Memoir, can 
be admitted as satisfactory or even rational. 



19 

It does most forcibly strike my mind, that the 
whole error here lies in placing the effect for the 
cause ; or making the ejffect precede the cause. And, 
that instead of the inspectors of New York spoiling 
or debasing i\\t flour, the flour has spoiled or debased 
them. Inspecting, as they do, on the quality, and 
finding none superfine, compared to that of the South, 
they find themselves obliged, in order to live by their 
fees, to use their creative powers, and make a due 
proportion of it so. On the contrary, the inspectors 
of the South, finding a sufficient quantity of a supe- 
rior quality to aiford them their expected profits, are 
not under the same temptation to go into this abuse. 
To resist these conclusions, we shall be obliged, 
without alternative, to admit that the inspectors of 
the South are not yet quite so far gone in the vice and 
corruption of avarice as tliose of the North. This 
is not the first instance in affairs of very great impor- 
tance in which the effect has been mistaken for the 
cause, among the learned and philosophical. Almost 
the whole body of the Christian world for many 
years thought, as many of them still think, and some 
of them, no doubt, will for ever think, that the flood 
of irreligion, which broke out and overwhelmed the 
French nation upon their late revolution, was the 
effect of that revolution ; whereas, in reality, it was 
the great cause, which had been gathering strength 
for many years from the well known sce|)ticism of 
that devoted people ; and waiting only for that favor- 
able opportunity, when it burst forth with all its 
powerful and baleful effects in that most memorable 
event. So true is this, that as early as the year '74, 



so 

fourteen years before that revolution, tliere was 
among; all the men of eminence in France, but one, 
and that was the celebrated Neckar, who had not 
totally abandoned the Christian religion, termed by 
Voltaire, the great fatlier of that infidel age, " The 
Infamous Fanaticism," and taken up with the impious 
philosophy of the times. 

Hence, 1 cannot think, that the cause assigned by 
the author of the Memoir, for the inferiority of 
Northern flour, can be sustained. Yet, the public 
are certainly much indebted to him for his able, learn- 
ed, and well written performance. Its value must 
be acknowledged by all. And no one, he may be 
assured, can concur with him more cordially than 
myself, in recommending the most useful and strict 
attention to the purity of seed, cleanliness from filth, 
and good condition of soil, in otder to improve the 
quality of wheat. 

11. 1 shall now respectfully submit what I have 
long conceived to be the only true and satisfactory 
cause of the inferiority of Northern flour ; namely, 
the damaged state of the wheat in consequence of 
suffering it to remain too long on the earth before 
harvesting it, after it has arrived to a state of full 
and perfect maturity. Until, according to the com- 
mon, strange idea of the North, it is " dead ripe.'' 
That is, ripe even unto death. 

i. In support of this opinion the following facts 
are offered. That, from the best accounts of travel- 
lers and writers, and from the various uses which 
we have seen made of the straw, it appears that in 
no part of this or any other country, excepting that 



SI 

North of Pennsylvania, is wheat left to stand on the 
ground until it reaches its utmost state of decay : 
and that no where else has the baseness of ilour been 
made a subject of serious and general complaint. In 
the Southern and Western parts of the United States, 
the farmers watch with great care and anxiety this 
period of full and perfect ripeness, and improve, to 
the neglect of all other concerns, the favored, the 
accepted time of harvest. At the North the reverse 
is well known to be the mode of management. Every 
thing else is better attended to than the harvest of 
their wheat crop ; which they universally leave far 
beyond the proper tirae of gathering it. 

It is also known that the \yheat of the South manu- 
factured in the mills of the North, makes as good 
flour as when manufactured in those of the South ; 
but, that the wheat of the North will make no better 
flour when manufactured in the mills of the South. 
Nor will the wheat of the North command as high a 
price in the Southern markets as that of the Soi^h. 

Of the first of these facts, there have been many 
proofs, the advantages and disadvantages in the 
inspection laws of the respective places to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. One of the most respectable 
and satisfactory proofs was given me not long since 
by General Bailey, of this city, in a conversation with 
him on this subject. He told me that he once receiv- 
ed from the mills of Messrs, Merit & Hart, between 
Albany and Troy, flour manufactured by them from 
a cargo of Southern wheat, of a quality superior to 
that manufactured at the South, which he had been 
accustomed to use. 



32L 

Further, that wheat at the North harvested ahout 
the period of full ripeness, as it is at the South, will 
make as good flour, the following relation of facts 
will prove. In the year 1805, I removed from the 
South, (the state of Delaware) to this my native state, 
and recommenced my favorite agricultural pursuits on 
a most fertile and delightful farm belonging to George 
Tibbits, Esquire, of Troy, situated on Green Island, 
formed by the junction of the two lower mouths of the 
Mohawk with the Hudson. 

The year following, just as I was setting in one 
morning, with all the force I could rally, to harvest a 
very large and fine crop of wheat, my brother, Gilbert 
Brush, then a merchant in Troy, but for many years 
a farmer in that neighborhood of high reputation in 
his business, came into the field, and with great con- 
cern for me and my interest, addressed me in the 
following hasty and abrupt, but kind manner : 
(( Why really, brother, are you quite mad ? It cannot 
'' be^ possible that you seriously intend to cut this 
^^ charming field of wheat in its present green state. 
" My word for it, you will lose it all, and thereby 
*"' bring on your ruin." I smiled, and thrust in the 
sickle, for I knew that ^' the harvest had already 
*' fully come." And left him to bemoan my folly ; 
and to go and consult with his neighbors on the signs 
of the time of harvest. Some said, " yet ten days ; 
" some two weeks ; and some three weeks, and then 
" Cometh harvest.*' I heeded them not ; but pro- 
ceeded, and before some of them had finished their 
harvest, I had mine threshed out, taken to market and 
sold ; and for a greater price than was obtained that 



23 

season. The flour of this wheat was confessed to be 
of a superior quality, and fully equal to that from the 
South. 

In the spring of 1808, I resigned the lease of this 
favorite spot to my brother already mentioned, Avho 
has occupied it ever since, and returned with my 
family to the South ; nor heard, nor troubled myself 
more about what my brother and my old honest 
Dutch neighbors thought of my mode of managing 
the w Ijeat crop, until last spring. When, after an 
absence of eleven years, I had the pleasure to see 
this same brother again in this city. And, after the 
greetings usual on such tender occasions, and a little 
common talk on the affairs of old times, the first set 
subject he introduced was, the wheat crop I cut in a 
" fit of madness," on Green Island. And told me, 
that from the time he had succeeded me on the pre- 
mises, he had pursued my plan of cutting and curing 
liis wheat in due time ; and that it was acknowledged, 
that it, and the flour made from it, was far superior to 
that of '^ dead ripe" wheat. 

What influence this striking proof has had on the 
farmers of the surrounding country, he did not tell 
me ; but, if I were to judge from my long experience 
of the dispositions of men in all important concerns, I 
should suppose myself quite safe in concluding, that 
not five north of the Pennsylvania line have ever 
since followed the example. Such is the foolish and 
wicked obstinacy of some people in this world ; that, 
instead of profiting by the ingenuity and labors of 
those who make every sacrifice for their welfare : 
they really seem to take a pleasure in attempting to 



24 

thwart their benevolent purposes, and despising 
them for their good will. 

Once more. If a crop of wheat at the South, of 
the same kind, and raised on the same soil with what 
is common to the country, be left, through negli- 
gence, hurry of other business, or inability to harvest 
it sooner, to reach the " dead ripe" state, after the 
manner of the North, it is well known to the farmers 
and millers there, that it will be no fairer, no fuller, 
weigh no more, nor make any better flour, than if it 
had been produced on the soil, in the climate, and 
manufactured in a mill in the state of New York, or 
in Upper Canada. 

Let, then, these several facts be attentively and 
candidly weighed, and I must think, that with any 
mind, in a state to be impressed with evidence of so 
reasonable a nature, nothing more would be required 
to induce a conviction in favor of the opinion here 
contended for ; namely, that the damage the wheat 
must necessarily sustain from being left too long on 
the ground beyond the time of entire ripeness, is the 
real and true cause of the inferiority of Northern 
flour. 

But, that no aid of evidence may be wanting on a 
subject of so much acknowledged importance to the 
first interest of that great section of our union, the 
JSTorfh, so rapidly increasing in all the improve- 
ments in useful arts and sciences, particularly those 
of agriculture ; — I will offer, 
3. In furtherance of this opinion the following 
observations : 



25 

Every one knows, or ought to know, wlio is the 
least couversant with the operations of nature in the 
vegetable kingdom, that all annual growths require 
to be taken from the earth when they no longer want 
nourishment from it, and it can no longer give it : 
and that all the time they are suffered to remain on 
it beyond this stage of their perfect maturity, they 
only waste their choicer powers in a tedious, unna- 
tural decay. Perhaps, there are no stricter observers 
of the times and seasons of nature, in her regards and 
calls of annual vegetables, than the farmers of the 
North, in every crop, except that of ir/ieaf. Their 
rye, their Indian corn, and oats, they gather in before 
the '^ dead ripe" state — their timothy, clover, and 
all kinds of grasses, they cut ; and their fruits and 
vegetables they preserve in due time. Every thing 
in this way shares their kind and seasonable atten- 
tion. Let them, then, bestow the same on their 
wheat, and, after one year, they will have no further 
reason to complain of the inferiority of their flour. It 
will then be fully equal, if not superior, to that of the 
South ; as their wheat is as good, I believe better, 
and certainly freer from filth ; — their mills better, 
and their skill in manufacturing, at least equal. Let 
them treat their wheat as they do their rye, and their 
flour will be as much superior to what it now is, as 
thatofearl^ cut is to that of late cut rye. The prac- 
tice here recommended is precisely that of the South. 
They there harvest their wheat at the same time the 
farmers at the North do their rye. They bind it up 
in small sheaves with single bands, setting them up 

4 



26 

as they are bound, and towards evening place them 
in shocks of about twelve or fifteen sheaves each ; 
where it is left a few days to cure in the air and sun. 
This is a far better method than leaving it to cure in 
the swath : as in this way it cures more gradually, 
and wastes less of its substance by drying too sud- 
denly, and shells out far less in binding. Let this 
mode of managing the wheat crop become uniform 
throughout the United States, and t!ie flour will be 
perfectly, or nearly a kin. And certainly, to say 
nothing of the many other advantages, which we 
have yet to enumerate, there is a prodigious reward 
awaits the farmers of the North upon the adoption of 
any plan which would bring their flour up to the 
quality of that of Virginia. For the author of the 
Memoir says, " that this would produce an increase 
of income to the state of New York of at least 
^500,000 per annum." That this calculation is mo- 
derate, I am very sure : and, I think below the real 
amount by one. half. 

I further observe, that for the same cause, namely, 
that of gathering in the crops in, or out of due season, 
the Indian corn meal of the North is as much supe- 
rior to that of the South, as the wheat flour of the 
latter is to that of the former. At the North the 
earlier approach of winter, and its greater severity 
render it necessary that the corn crop should be 
gathered in as soon as it is ripe ; it would not be safe 
to let it remain out, like the wheat, until it is " dead 
ripe." At the South, not being under tlie same neces- 
sity of gathering in the corn crop when it is fully ripe, 



27 

it is there suflfered to remain on the ground quite too 
long. Yet, it is with the corn there, as it is with the 
wheat at the North, it is far better when gathered in 
due time. This is known by the frequent practice of 
plucking the earliest ripe ears and curing them in a 
proper manner. The meal will then be much richer, 
more palatable and nutritious. And so it will be 
with all kinds of pulse, as has been determined by 
several experimentalists. 

I have but one observation more to offer in support 
of this opinion ; and that is the well known supe- 
riority of the Irish flax ; which is owing wholly to 
the circumstance of its being pulled at an earlier stage 
than that of other countries. And yet I think it 
might be suffered to remain long enough to preserve 
the seed, and be equally good, if not better. For, 
as I would not suffer any annual vegetable to continue 
on the earth after full maturity, so neither would I 
like to remove it sooner. And the power of the seed 
or grain to germinate and reproduce should iu all 
cases be my rule, 

3. To offer reasons to enforce the opinion that the 
inferiority of Northern flcmr arises from cutting the 
wheat too late, would be almost superfluous, after 
the preceding facts and observations. For what can 
be more obvious, than that the substance of every 
thing must be better at full maturity, than when it 
has far declined ? For this reason the Northern 
wheat does not grind so kindly as that of the South. 
The bran from the latter, in the operation of grinding, 
is separated in larger and more entire flakes from th^ 



28 

grain ; antl, of course, less is left to mingle with the 
flour. Whereas, the bran of the " dead ripe" wheat 
of the North, cannot be separated in the same desira- 
ble manner. It comes off with difficulty, is cut up in 
grinding into finer particles ; and consequently a 
greater quantity must be unavoidably suffered to pass 
through the bolting cloth and mix with the flour, 
greatly to the injury of its appearance, as well as to 
the greater detriment of its quality. 

And how, we would ask, can it be supposed that 
the flour of wheat, thus wasted by long and unnatu- 
ral decay, can be possessed of the same rich and 
generous properties, as that of wheat harvested at 
maturity, "coming in," as Job says, " in his season?" 
Surely none ought to suppose it, because it cannot 
[,e — for nature itself forbids it. It is the condition 
of the skin which constitutes the healthy or unhealthy 
state of vegetables, as well as of animals. Hence 
the dry, husky and stubborn coat contracted by overly 
ripe wheat, but too plainly indicates that its better 
days have gone by. This, and this alone, accounts for 
the greater proportion of gluten, or active substance, 
and bran, or inactive matter in early cut wheat. It 
having a good state of skin, its internals must also 
be good. 

The author of the Memoir has given the average 
proportion of the three essential substances, viz : 
ghiten, starch, (including mucilage) and bran, con- 
tained in New York and Virginia wheat, and I have 
no doubt, with perfect accuracy la the following 
table : 



100 parts of New York winter wheat, contain 
76 do. of starch, 
19 do. of gluten, 

5 do. of bran, or insoluble matter. 

100 do. of Virginia winter wheat, contain 
70 do. of starch, 
S4 do, of gluten, 

6 do. of bran or insoluble matter. 

This diiference in the proportion of ingredients 
contained in the wheat of New York and Virginia, 
the writer attributes to the influence of climate, in 
the following words : "On the contrary, it is a re- 
" mark founded on judicious experiment, that those 
^* ingredients are variously proportioned and embo- 
" died, as the plant is grown in warm or cold 
" climates." In support of this opinion he quotes 
the authority of professor Davy on Agricultural Che- 
mistry, p. 137 — who says, " I have examined differ- 
" ent specimens of North American wheat ; all of 
," them have contained rather more gluten than the 
" British. In general the wheat of warm climates 
" abounds more in gluten, and in insoluble parts ; 
" and it is of greater specific gravity, harder and 
" more difBcult to grind." The learned professor 
and the learned writer of the Memoir, both assert 
and establish facts in direct aid of my opinion. They 
both speak of the comparative excellence of the 
wheat of the North and the South in the United 
States, and give a decided preference to the latter. 
But professor Davy, I believe, never was in the 
United States ; and the author of the Memoir never 
farmed it, and was concerned in the manufacture of 



30 

flour, I presume, both in Virginia and New York : 
and neither of them knowing, probably, that it was 
a universal practice to cut tlie wheat at maturity at the 
South, and not until the " dead ripe" state as at the 
North, wouUl very naturally fall into the error they 
have done, all the indications of nature to the man of 
travel, experience and practical observation, to the 
contrary notwithstanding ; and resolve the difference 
wholly into the effect of climate. Whereas, had they 
known what they could not possibly know for want 
of kiiowledge, what others whose experience, as real 
farmers and millers both in Virginia and New York, 
has tauglit them, they would have given a different 
cause ; unless they could destroy the stubborn fact 
which is well known, and, as such, I have asserted 
it, that late cut wheat in Virginia becomes New 
York wheat perfectly ; the flour the same ; and that 
early cut wheat in New York, becomes Virginia wheat 
perfectly ; the flour the same. Pray what great dif- 
ference between the climates of the counties of 
I3utchess, Orange, and Ulster in New York ; Lan- 
caster, Cumberland, and Northumberland in Penn- 
sylvania ; Washington and Allegheny in Maryland ; 
or Frederick, Berkley, and Shennandoah in Virgi- 
nia, the best among the old counties, for wheat in 
these respective states ? About the same. What 
then becomes of the notion of the influence of climate 
on the quality of wheat and flour in the United States ? 
Here I should have closed this train of reasoning, and 
proceeded to the next branch of the subject, as pro- 
posed, had I not, in re-examining the Memoir, 
happened to glance my eye upon a particular cjuota- 



31 

lion, among Ihe many which the author has made, 
from the celebrated Fourcroy's Chemistry, vol. 7* 
p. 410, in words as follow : ^'^ It is no less certain, 
" that to this property of the pulverulent particles 
" of the gluten to become elastic by the addition of 
*^ water, that the farina of wheat owes that of forming 
" a paste ; and that it is in proportion to its quantity 
<^ that the panification, more or less sensible in this 
*' farina, varies, according to the state of maturity^ 
'^ the nature of the corn and that of the soil, the sea- 
" son, and all the circumstances relative to the 
** vegetation of this important plant." 

All the remark 1 shall stop to make on this quota- 
tion is, that if the author, or the writer of the Memoir, 
lia(i understood and carefully attended to six words 
in it, viz : ^* according to the state of maturity,^^ 
they might have for ever rested from their labors on 
this long agitated question ; and I should have been 
saved the painful and almost intolerable drudgery, 
under my present wretched circumstances, of prepar- 
ing this pai)er. For, in this case, no one need to have 
written after them. Kvery thing would then have 
been explained and understood. 

III. I now proceed to give those sure and infalli- 
ble indications of nature, by which she points out 
that precise stage of full and perfect maturity in the 
wheat crop, when, according to her fixed and univer- 
sal laws, which govern all annual vegetables, it is 
not only safe, but when it ought to be harvested, and 
taken from its parent earth, in oi'der to preserve it 
from that waste of its richer, finer, more sprightly, 
and generous substances, which it must .^■.\ii. 



33 

lose iu consequence of standing through a long and 
tedious decay, after the state of full and perfect 
ripeness. 

These indications are few, simple, and easily 
understood. When the straw exhibits a bright 
golden color from the bottom nearly to the top, or 
head : when the head begins to incline gently, and 
iu a small degree, be assured the time of nature has 
come ; life is then departing ; put in the sickle, and 
save the crop from that waste which it must certainly 
suffer from delay. But, as all parts of a crop will 
not be equally ripe at the same time ; go through your 
wheat field, when you contemplate harvesting it, and 
select the very greenest heads you can find, and, if 
by rubbing them in your hands, you can separate the 
kernel from tlie chaff, you may know that the grain is 
then out of its milky state, and may then be cut with 
safety, as it will not shrink or perish, if properly cured 
in the air and sun ; though the straw of such heads 
may be quite green some distance, if the part below, 
as before mentioned, is of a bright golden color from 
the bottom upwards. These indications show that 
the grain wants no further nourishment from the 
earth ; that the earth of course, can give no more. 
The sooner then the child is taken from the parent 
the better, particularly for the farmer. Again I say, 
when ye see all these things, put in your sickle. 

But really I need not have been at all these pains ; 
and it will, no doubt, be asked, why I have, after all 
I have said on the subject, to teach the Northern 
farmers when and how to harvest their wheat. No 
people on earth know better when to gather iu every 



83 

other crop than they. Their corn, their oats, their 
peas, clover and timothy are all preserved in due 
time — particularly their rye. Let them, then, only 
treat their wheat as kindly as they do their rye, and 
all will be well. 

IV. It now only remains, that I enumerate the 
many advantages obviously arising from the practice 
here recommended of harvesting wheat in due season, 
independently of the superior quality of the flour, 
here principally urged. The first and greatest 
advantage is, that less of the wheat is lost in gather- 
ing it ; but at the proper season there is none worth 
naming lost by shelling out ; scarcely a grain being 
seen through the whole process of harvesting : cut at 
the ** dead ripe" state, oue-tenth, at least, is lost. 
For really in this state, every stroke, every touch is 
more like threshing with the flail, than that of cutting 
with the cradle, sickle, or scythe. The harvesters' 
pockets and bosoms are filled, and the ground strewed 
with a sufficient quantity of loose, scattered grain to 
seed it twice over. This is a great loss. 

In the second place, by cutting the wheat crop in 
due season, the straw is not only good provender ; 
much better than the straw of the rye, which is so 
eagerly sought after in all the cities and villages at 
the North, in what they call chopped stuff ; but for 
various other uses, such as hats for men, bonnets for 
women, for bottoming chairs, for mats for our entry 
doors, horse collars, thatching, and for elegant toy 
boxes and baskets. While the straw of " dead ripe'* 
wheat is fit for nothing but to be trodden under foot 
of beast, as no old starving cow would eat it — tu be 



34 

used merely in littering bam -yards and stalls, in 
covering cow-hovels and hog- sties. It has neither 
pliability, nor nutriment in it. 

Can we any longer doubt of tlic great advantage of 
cutting our wheat at an early stage, as we do our 
other grains, as to the value of the straw, to say 
nothingof its higli value as provender for beasts, when 
we see every summer in the very city of New York, 
where there is such an everlasting complaint about the 
inferiority of Northern fiour, tlie most elegant hats 
worn by the gentlemen, manufactured from the straw 
of early cut wheat by the Dutch women of the various 
parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia? But 
let the most skilful woman that this world ever yet 
knew, even Penelope herself, try her powers to weave 
a hat or bonnet, or even a mat from the straw of the 
" dead ripe" wheat of tlie North, aiid she would find 
it would crumble and dissolve at the slightest toucli 
of her delicate fingers. So, the straw of" dead ripe'* 
wheat at the North is good for nothing, as 1 have 
already said, but to be cast out and trodden under 
foot of beasts. I would not dwell so long on the 
light and trifling subject of straw, were it not, that, 
according to the common maxim, " straws shew 
" which way the wind blows," so as is the straw, so 
is the wheat : and as I have already observed, as a 
proof, that, in all parts of the world, excepting North, 
of Pennsylvania, the wheat was cut at its maturity. 1 
have been the more particular in producing facts to 
support this proof from the circumstance of the straw. 
Another great advantage of harvesting the wheat 
crop in due time, is, that it produces less interference 



35 

in the various business of the season. Particularly 
as it gives the farmer an opportunity, before it be too 
late, to bestow upon his crop of Indian corn the last 
dressing, which is by far the most critical ; and 
which, if not done in due time, had much better not 
be done at all. 

And it is well known, that generally the highest 
price can be obtained for wheat immediately after 
harvest. He then who delivers his wiieat first in the 
market, will be in the way to receive the gain. 

The wlieat when cut early is more easily cut ; it 
yields more readily to the instrument, than when old 
and stubbofiJ. 

The remaining stubble, when the wheat is cut in 
proper season, before it becomes exhausted of all its 
substance, will return much more richness to the earth, 
than the stubble of ^^ dead ripe" wheat. 

One more great and obvious advantage of harvest- 
ing the wheat crop in due season, is, the well known 
impatience of tliat most subtle, voracious, restless, 
and ungovernable creature, the swine, for the stubble 
field at this time. It is next to impossible, by all the 
devices of pens, and yokes, and watchfulness of man 
and dog, at this season of harvest, which he knows 
has come as well as we do, and I really believe, 
much better, to restrain him from his time immemo- 
rial privilege of entering the field, as a gleaner. 
And, be assured, if this be too long denied him, he 
will enter it as a sturdy reaper. Let, then, the hog 
have his rights, by harvesting the wheat in due time, 
and thereby save yourselves endless vexation and 
\osSf ye farmers of the JS*ortli : for never yet, I be- 



30 

lievc, was fliere any thing gained by defrauding and 
vexing a hog. 

Lastly. All grain, fruits, and vegetables, used in 
distillation, will, for the reasons already given, yield 
a choicer and more pure spirit, when gathered at the 
/ season of full and perfect maturity. The more 
gluteal or active substance, the more alcohol ; a great 
consideraiion to the makers and consumers of whiskey. 

If what I have advanced, and endeavored to sup- 
port by facts, observations, and reasonings, be true, 
namely, that the inferiority of Northern flour be 
wholly owing to the too late cutting of the wheat, it 
will, no doubt, be asked, how it has happened that 
the farmers and millers of the North have not disco- 
vered and attended to this fact, as well as those of 
the South? The truth is, the farmers and millers of 
the South, in general, know about as little of the 
cause of the superiority of their flour, as those of the 
North do of that of the inferiority of theirs. The 
former are perfectly contented that their flour be 
good ; while the latter are everlastingly complaining 
that theirs is bad ; and this is all that any of them 
know on the subject. They are alike governed by 
long established habits and customs. Some person, 
it seems, has been wise enough to find it out for them ; 
and kind and patriotic enough to make it known. 
Yet, it will still be urged, that there must be some 
reason for a practice so directly at variance in a mat- 
ter of such high importance. I will, then, give the 
best account of it I can. And having farmed it, and 
been coDceraed in mills from the 38th to the 43d 



37 • 

<lpgrce of north latitude, it is probable that it will not 
be altogether an irrational one. 

To be sure, it is said, that wheat is the staple of 
New York, as well as of Virginia. That it is the 
• principal and most valuable product, is certain. But, 
it by no means follows from this, that it is as much 
attended to at the most critical season. In truth, it 
would be difficult to tell what is the staple of the state 
of New York, it has so many valuable and important 
articles. Hence tiie care and attention of the cultiva- 
tor are so much divided amongst his various objects, 
his wealth and prosperity not depending entirely on 
any one, that some one or more must be neglected, 
through his too great hurry of business. And, it 
unfortunately happens, that the wheat crop is one ; 
and, I believe, the only one that is neglected. It 
being a clear gain crop, and not a living one, he 
knows, that if it should be wholly lost, it would not 
mach affect, far less ruin him : as he has many other 
valuable articles for market, on the proceeds of which 
he can still safely depend for subsistence, for the 
payment of his debts, and for the prosecution of his 
views of speculation Not so with the farmer of the 
South. Never having been trained as a dealer in 
notions, his wheat crop is his main, and often his sole 
dependance. If this be lost, all is pretty much lost. 
Consequently this will receive his particular care 
and attention. It will not only be the last interest 
he will neglect ; but he will neglect every other 
interest for the sake of this. For it is, in truth, his 
temporal salvation. 



38 

A contrast between the harvest scene of the North 
and the South, would afford a most striking illustra- 
tion of these facts. It really deserves a poem. Pity 
wc have not a Virgil, or a Thompson, to set to the 
lay. But, as the task is upon me, I will make a 
humble attempt, and brieiiy give the description, in 
the best manner 1 can. 

Harvest at the South is, what it always ought to be 
every where — a joyous, sacred, rpligious season. At 
its approach, (and well they know when it comes) 
all other cares are dismissed, every other concern 
laid aside. The enslaved sclio«d.boy, and the still 
more enslaved pedagogue, are set free for two weeks, 
by custom immemorial, double the time allowed 
them at the Christmas and New Year holy days. 
JEach poor captive of the sable race, hails the occa- 
sion with every honest manifestation of high delight, 
well knowing that he is to participate as largely as 
the rest in the hey-day of the season ; and that his 
generous master will not suEfer his faithful services 
to go unrewarded at a time like this. The business 
of the merchant and mechanic is suspended. Not a 
plough is seen to move ; nor a wheel, except on the 
public road, so that all the laboring beasts in the 
meantime take their rest. All now prepare to take 
the iield, headed by the joyful owner. Least of all 
would the fair withhold their kindly aid. All of 
them who are not engaged within, in preparing the 
choicer refreshments of the season, old and young, 
matrons with their children, follow the reapers, either 
to collect the sheaves, or to animate, by their cheering 
presence, tlie emulous swain to greater exertion. 



39 

But, before they ever tliiuk of beginning to gather 
in this richer bounty of the Great Giver of all good, 
they iirst assemble themselves in holy convocation in 
their respective places of religious worship, to im- 
plore his blessing on their labors ; and where they 
receive from their pious pastors, appropriate ad- 
dresses, in which they are most aifectionately exhorted 
to the great duties ol temperance, sobriety, industry, 
and good will towards one another; and urged to 
improve with all diligence and steady labor, that 
particularly precious season and state of weather so 
favorable to the purpose, wliich Providence com- 
monly, in his great kindness, allots to man for 
gathering in the wheat harvest" above all others. 
The work is then commenced, if that can be called a 
work, wliich partakes more of pleasure than labor. 

And, when the ijarvest is ended, they all again, 
w ith one consent, convene in their several churches, 
and unite in thanksgiving and praise to their munifi- 
cent Parent, who so liberally crowns the year " with 
** his goodness and loving kindness.*" 

With a people of such habits, customs, and senti- 
ments, the wheat crop is in no danger of sustaining 
damasze for want of beins; h.irvested iji due time. 

But, do we see any thing which compares witii 
this in all the movements, operations, and proceedings 
in the harvest scene of the North ? Oh 1 no ; far from 
it. Every thing is totally different. So much so, 
that the farmers of the North, many of them, really 
seem hardly to know when harvest comes. And 
when they do finally conclude tliat it has arrived, 
they undertake it more like a piece of drudgery than 



40, 

a pleasure : particularly if they happen to have auy 
other business on hand. Instead of putting every 
thing in requisition, like the farmers of the South, one 
hand, perhaps, will be engaged in hauling cord- wood ; 
another hoeing in a squash and pumpkin patch ; a 
third mending a fish net, while the two remaining 
male hands are in the field of harvesting. And, as 
to the women, saving among the High Duicli, or 
Germans, my word for it, you see no " lovely, young 
'•^ and charming Lavinias^^ among the reapers, bind- 
ers, sheaff carriers, or gleaners. In the meanwhile 
the harvesting progresses but dully. The wheat 
'• dead ripe" too when they began. What, then, 
must it be before they are done? It will by that 
time, to say notliing of other disadvantages and 
losses, be more like threshing than cutting the wheat, 
so much of it must be shelled out by this most injudi- 
cious, most untoward mode of management. Is 
it any wonder, then, that they have inferior fiour ? 
Nor do I think, unless they alter tlieir conduct in 
this respect, that they would ever deserve any better. 
From all these circumstances I think it hisrhlv 
probable, if not quite certain, that, wlierever the 
wheat crop is made nearly the whole dependence of 
the farmer, it would be cut in due season, and saved 
in a proper manner. AVhich is very much the case 
in the more infant settlements in the state of New 
York ; and I think very much so throughout the 
state, before the attention of the cultivator became 
divided among so many branches of business, that lie 
could not bestow sufficient care in due time on his 
whe^t crop. And of the truth of this opinion, the 



41 

writer of the Memoir has, I think, furnished very 
strong, if not full and satisfactory proof. His words 
are : " From the earliest agricultural notices of 
" our individual states, it seems reasonable to 
" infer that it was once a generally received opinion, 
*^ that the wheat produced in our own state was supe- 
" rior in quality to that produced in Virginia, where 
" unquestionably the best wheat is now prepared for 
*^ market." This opinion he supports by a quotation 
from Strickland's observations on the United States 
of America. ^' The wheat of New York is esteemed 
" the best of any in the United States, and that 
'^ grown on the banks and branches of the Mohawk^ 
" the best in the state," In perfect accordance with 
ray own opinion, as above expressed, the writer says, 
that the best wheat in the state of New York is raised 
among the settlements on the Mohawk river : and, 
no doubt, for the reason I have given, viz : The set- 
tlements being new, their principal attention is be- 
stowed on the wheat crop, which, on this account, is 
harvested at maturity. 

But the most striking proof I have had of this 
opinion, that, in all new settlements, the wheat will 
be superior to that of the old, has been from certain 
flour merchants of this city, who inform me, that they 
have received flour from New Orleans of a quality 
superior to any they have ever had from Virginia. 
Now, this flour from New Orleans must have come 
down the western waters quite from the interior of 
the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee, and altogether from settlements more 

recently formed, where the wheat crop, being their 

6 



43 

principal if not sole dependauce, they are compelled 
by the necessity of their circumstances, to make it the 
great, and almost only object of their care and atten- 
tion, and consequently will harvest and save it in due 
time. Many parts of those states abovementioned, 
where the wheat must have grown from which this 
superior flour from New Orleans, now spoken of, 
are as far North as those parts in tlie state of New 
York, from which, by the acknowledgment of the 
author of the Memoir, the very best wheat in the 
state is brought to market. Why, tlien, talk any 
more about the influence of climate on the quality of 
wheat, where the climate is about the same ; or where 
the difference is so trifling, that it never ought to be 
taken into the account by any accurate investigator ; 
atid which never could be thought of, but for the pur- 
pose of relieving a dilficult case ? Eut, once for all, if 
climate have this wonderful efl'ect on the quality of 
wheat, as is so strenuously contended for ; we may 
all cease to talk and write, for w ho, 1 would ask, will 
have the hardiness to think he can ever alter the 
climate ? Certainly, no alteration in the inspection 
laws can ever effect it. 

This propensity in all of us, to assign any cause 
rather than none ; and to seize on any thing for a 
support or an apology for our opinions when once 
formed, cannot be better expressed, than by the 
writer of the Memoir. I will take the lil)erty to cite 
it, as it is so directly to my purpose on this branch of 
the subject. *• And I cannot here refrain from re- 
^^ marking, how, in this instance, is exhibited the 
" proneness of the human mind, to coyer voluntary 



43 

•• evils under the plea of pbysical necessity, rather 
'•^ than wait the result of cool and deliberate exami- 
'• nation, which would satisfactorily have shown their 
*•' artificial origin.^' 

If the cause which I have here assigned for the 
inferiority of Northern flour, be the true and only 
one, of which 1 cannot doubt, the desired effect will 
follow immediately upon the application of it, even 
from the present crop of wheat now growing on the 
earth, if it be but harvested in proper season, which 
I presume, every farmer who sees or hears of the 
facts, observations, and reasonings, which I have now 
the pleasure of addressing to yourself, will have good 
sense enough to do. For, to say nothing of the more 
important consideration of the superior quality of the 
flour, I have enumerated other advantages, certainly 
sufficient to induce a universal adoption of the prac- 
tice here recommended. 

I need not tell you, ray dear sir, for you cannot 
but perceive it, that 1 have prepared this communica- 
tion under very great disadvantages. Great, indeed, 
± can assure you. Difficulties, such as I have never 
yet had to encounter on such an occasion. My health 
unusually low ; my spirits dreadfully depressed, from 
my late disappointments and misfortunes ; and writ- 
ing without the comfort of fire, or even the accommo- 
dation of a table or chair. But, encouraged by your 
favorable notices, I have persevered, endured the 
labor, and am now happy, imperfect, as I am but too 
sensible this performance is, to commit it to one, as I 
have already observed, in whose good sense, candor 
and friendship I can confide. 



I shall only further add, that should it meet your 
approbation, and you should think it worthy of pub- 
lic notice, I will, as the weather has now become 
milder, and my health somewhat improved, imme- 
diately set about it, and furnish this work for you in 
a much better manner. And, if sufficiently patro- 
nised by the public, 1 will also prepare small tracts 
on the following subjects : — 1. The best mode of 
tillage for flat or champaign lands, particularly the 
Hempstead plains on Long Island ; and embanked 
meadows of the Messrs. Swarthouts' on the marshes 
of the Hackensack and Passaic rivers ; with the most 
proper culture of corn on such lands. S. The most 
proper course to be pursued with all laboring men 
and animals as to the times of taking their food and 
rest. 3. The cheapest food on which to raise and 
fatten swine. 4. The only principles on which to 
construct chimney and fire places, so as to render 
bouses Tree from smoke, secure against accidents by 
fire, and to produce the greatest degree of warmth 
"With the smallest quantity of fuel. ^ 

Be pleased to accept, 
Dear sir, the assurances 

Of my high respects and sincere regards. 
JOHN C. BKUbH. 



XOTI^S AKB ll.li\!^TUAT10XS. 



Note (a.) 

Among all the stupid and accountable attachments 
of agriculturalists, to the slavery of custom or ancient 
practice, is that of binding themselves down, almost 
by the religious solemnity of an oatli, that they will 
neither spade, plough, sovr, reap, nor gather in the 
various fruits of the earth, nor shear their sheep, 
mark their lambs, calves, pigs, &c. but on such a 
particular day of the year, month and week. This 
is a most serious, injurious absurdity. Why, they 
might, with as much reason and propriety, say they 
would not ea/, drink f sleep, take, medicine, nor per- 
form any of the necessary functions of nature, except- 
ing at a given, precise hour and moment of a moon- 
light night, no matter how great her calls. 

Now, an Indian^ or an old squaw, would reprove 
their folly and teach them better. These children of 
nature would instruct them to conform strictly to her 
various operations in her earlier and later progress 
of vegetation, and not to regard any particular day ; 
as nothing, especially in new countries, like this, 
where the soil and surface of the earth, and conse- 
quently the climate, are undergoing continual vicis- 
situdes, can be more variable than the seasons. 
Hence, it would be wise in us to be 2;overned in our 
agricultural movements by these changf»s. 

Forty years ago, in the states of Delaware and 
Maryland, if a farmer did not plant his Indian corn 
by the 20th of March, and crib it l>y about the 1st of 
October, he would have been charged with negli- 



46 

gence and inattention. But, now were he to do this, 
he would most assuredly lose his crop. For, if it 
did not perish in the ground in the spring, for want 
of sufficient genial warmth in the bosom of the earth 
to cause it to germinate, it would most certainly rot 
in the crib at so early a period of the fall. 

At present, such has been the changes in the sea- 
sons, that if it be planted by the 20th of May, and 
cribbed by the ist or even 25th of December, it is 
considered quite safe. The rule with the Indians, 
who watch most carefully the progress of nature in 
the laws of her vegetable department, and who bind 
themselves down to the most scrupulous observance 
of them, is this, to sow flax (whenever they sow it at 
all, which is very seldom) when the leaf of the native 
forest poplar is as large as a squirrel's ear ; and to 
plant corn when the leaf of the white oak is as large 
as a squirreFs/ooL About the time when a white man 
can work a whole day in his corn field, bare-fooled 
without getting the tooth ache; he may then, and not 
till then, conclude that the earth is prepared with a 
due degree of warmth to receive and nourish the seed. 

The wise man, king Solomon sajs, " To every 
" thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose 
" under the Heaven ; a time to plant, and a time to 
^' pluck up that which is planted." 

If, then, we would have the full benefits of our labors 
from the fruits of the earth, and sometimes even pre- 
serve them from utter ruin, we must make it our great 
and first concern to observe most carefully the opera- 
tions of nature; and to conform, without neglect or de- 
lay, to her indications as to her times and seasons; par- 
ticularly those of the critical stage of her full maturity. 



47 
Note fh.J 

It is not intended by the observations in the intro- 
ductory, poetical part of this work, to advance any 
thing like that absurd notion of the confusion of 
souls in the universe, commonly known by the name 
of transmigration, or as it is vulgularly termed trans- 
mografication ; an absurdity most falsely and unjustly 
ascribed to that great and good man, Pythagoras, 
who certainly never did believe it, any more than did 
the pious and learned Dr. Edward Young, who 
adopted and advocated his opinions. 

All that eitiier of those great and worthy men 
believed on this subject, was, tliat there is one Great 
Soul, or life insjriring iirinciple of the universe, 
emanating from the Great Author of existence, and 
infused into every living thing, whether man, ani- 
mal, or vegetable ; and that all depend on this one 
common parent of creation, " for life, and breath, 
" and all things y^ according to the sentiments so 
frequently expressed by holy David the Psalmist, 
and others of the sacred writers ; and that the per- 
petuity of their existence in a state beyond the present 
depends entirely on his good will. In one word, 
they simply believed, that as all derived their exis- 
tence from this great first cause, all must return to him 
again in a highly improved state, after having passrd 
through their various destinies. But that eitlier of 
them ever believed that the soul of a man is, ever 
was, or ever will be, the soul of a Jiorse, dog, or cab- 
bage, is most false and absurb. 

This sentiment was also that of the celebrated 
Thomas Campbell, that first of poets ; as thus ex- 



48 

pressed in the following elegant and sublime lines in 
his Pleasures of Hope : 

'^ Soul of the just ! companion of the dead ! 

" Where is thy home, and whither art thou fled ? 

" Back to its Heav'nly source thy being goes, 

" Swift as the comet wheels to whence he rose ; 

" Doom'd on his airy path awhile to burn, 

" And doom'd, like tliee, to travel and return. 

" Hark ! from the world's exploding centre driv'n, 

*' With sounds that shook the lirmament of Heav'n, 

■"• Careers the fiery giant, fast and far, 

" On bick'ring wheels, and adamantine car ; 

"^ From planet whirl'd to planet more remote, 

'^ He visits realms beyond the reach of thought ; 

" But wheeling homeward, when his course is run, 

*' Curbs the red yoke, and mingles with the sun ! 

" So hath the traveller of earth unfurl'd 

" Her trembling wings, emerging from the world ; 

" And o'er the path by mortal never trod, 

'^ Sprung to her source, the bosom of her God !" 
And not less evident is it that the pre-eminent 
Whitefield, that idol of the Christian world in his day, 
adopted the same doctrine, as will appear from the 
following pious and ardent lines of his composition : 

'^ Rise, my soul ! and stretch thy wings, 

" Thy better portion trace, 

" Rise from transitory things 

" T'ward Heaven, thy native place : 

" Sun, and moon and stars decay, 

" Time will soon this earth remove : 

" Rise my soul and haste away 

«^ To seats prepared above. 



49 

" Rivers to the ocean run, 
" Nor stay in all their course : 
'' Fire ascending seeks the sun, 
" Both speed them to their source, 
" So a soul that's born of God, 
" Pants to view his glorious face, 
'^ Upwards tends to his abode, 
*^ To rest in his embrace. 

In all this there is nothing more asserted than this, 
that as all created beings, rational, animate, or inani- 
mate, have one common source or origin, so they will 
all, after having passed through the several stages of 
existence for which they were destined, return again 
and be absorbed in this great source of being. Cer- 
tainly, then, in ail this I can perceive nothing so 
revolting ; but, on the contrary, every thing that is 
sound and rational. For really there is nothing 
more contended for in the doctrine of transmigration, 
as maintained by Pythagoras, than the passage of the 
same individual being from one state of existence to 
another ; and how many will depend on the good 
pleasure of our Creator, and our own moral conduct. 



Note (^c.J 

In soils it is true, there is a very great difference 
as to their fitness to produce the wheat crop ; as it is 
certain that the quality of the latter varies with that 
of the former. But the same variety of soils, from 
the richer, purer mould, and loom, down to the more 
stubborn clay, and sterile gravel and sand, is found 

7 



50 

to exist ill all parts of tliis, as well as of other coun- 
tries. So that this consideration can have no possi- 
ble bearing on the present question. Besides, the 
soil of New York is well known to be more favorable 
to the production of wheat, than that of Virginia, 
which is proved beyond all controversy, from the 
once superiority of this species of grain of thc'former 
state. For this fact, I need only refer to the author 
of the Memoir, so frequently cited. He states, and 
no doubt with his accustomed accuracy, as follows, 
viz: " From the earliest agricultural notices of our 
^^ individual states, it seems reasonable to infer that 
*' it was once a generally received opinion, that the 
" wheat produced in our own state was superior in qua- 
" lity to that produced in Virginia, where unquestion- 
•' ably the best wheat is now prepared for market.'' 
And the authority which he quotes in proof of this 
opinion, William Strickland, Esq. of Yorkshire, 
England, in his observations on the United States of 
America, in 1796, says, " The wheat of New York 
" is esteemed the best of any in the United States, 
" and that grown on the banks and branches of the 
" Mohawk the best in the state. J had opportunities 
" of examining considerable quantities of it at Albany 
" in October, 17^4, and found it in general of a very 
" good quality, clean and well dressed : the best 
^* sample I could meet with, and which probably was 
'' as good as any which could have been produced, 
" weighed by the bushel, which was said to accord 
•* pretty well with that of the Winchester, which is 
'^ the only measure of grain known upon this conti- 
■' nent, 64| lbs. ; this, I was informed, was the 



51 

*' utmost weight of wheat produced in any part of 
" America/' Again, from the same : 

Jlveragp 'produce of wheat jjer acre. 

" In the state of New York 12 bushels. 

Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland 8 do. 
Virginia, east of the Blue Ridge , 7 do. 

Do. west of the Blue Ridge 12 do.'' 

From all -this it follows most conclusively that both 
from the weight and quantity of wheat raised in the 
state of New York, its quality of soil for the produc- 
tion of this article is superior to that of Virginia. It 
is further asserted by tliese learned and highly 
respectable authorities, that, at the period to which 
they allude, the quality^ as well as the weight per 
bushel, and quantity per acre, of the wheat of 
New York, surpassed that of Virginia. From all 
these facts, stated and satisfactorily proved by the 
author of the Memoir and his authorities, a very 
serious and important question arises ; why was the 
wheat of New York, at the period they fix upon, 
namely, some twenty -five or thirty years ago, supe- 
rior, in all respects, to that of Virginia, and inferior 
at the present time ? There is no other way of an- 
swering it to the satisfaction of any so!)er, rational 
enquirer, than that at that time the wheat both at the 
North and the South, was harvested at the same 
stage of its existence, namely, at the '^^ dead ripe state J^ 

Besides the writer, from a residence of nearly forty 
years ago at the South, knows this to be the fact. 
Tht improvement here spoken of, as to the proper 
time ofharvestiiigfKud manner of curing the wheat 
crop, was purely an accidental discovery made more 



52i 



than sp/Venty years since, hy a wealthy antV respect- 
able farmer of the county of Queen Anirs, on the 
Eastern Shore of Maryland. The accidental cir- 
cumstance wliicli led to this important discovery, it 
is not of consequence to mention. Otherwise, I could 
do it, and support the truth of the fact by the most 
unquestionable authorities. 

But, such are tlie well known prejudice and obsti- 
nacy of mankind, that though the fact, with all its 
advantages stared them in the "face on every side, it 
was not until about forty years, (somewhere nearly 
the time fixed upon by the author of the Memoir and 
his quoted authorities, for the inferiority of the 
Northern flour) that it became a general practice at 
the South, Is it any wonder, then, considering the 
snaz7-progress of all important improvements, that 
this practice of the South has not found its way, as 
yet, beyond the Delaware river, or the Northern 
boundary of Pennsylvania. But, as surely as reason 
and common sense are to be found at the North, as 
well as at the South, it will very shortly be adopted 
by the farmers of the former section. 



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